Wine events in London and Napa

Here are two very different events, one in California in eight weeks and one in London in two weeks – and now is the time to book.
 
If you’re serious about wine you might well be interested in the sixth Institute of Masters of Wine Napa Valley Symposium which will be held at Napa’s Silverado Resort 29 jun – 02 jul this year.
 
Its theme is Lateral Vision – Fresh ideas and actions for the global wine community. What looks a most appetising and intriguing programincludes a taste of all manner of hot topics, perhaps slightly more skewed to tasting and selling wine than to scientific detail of how to grow and make it. It ends on Sunday with ‘a candid dialogue with industry leaders’ chaired by me, as it happens. I’m also on a panel earlier in the event with my fellow wine writers Jim Laube of Wine Spectator and James Halliday of Australia designed to present a couple of wines each and to discuss what constitutes wine quality.
 
The event has already proved very popular but there are still some places left and you can find out more at http://www.masters-of-wine.org/front.htm.
 
The same is true of the much more playful World Challenge Wine Tasting at South Hampstead School in London that I shall be presenting on the evening of Thursday 18 may. See Join me for a wine tasting in London on May 18 for more details of this fast track to some of my favourite wines for summer drinking and La Fromagerie cheeses. Book now for both events.